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NewsBriefs

This article contains excerpts from news stories recently posted under FTC sending refunds via PayPal
Breaking Industry News on our homepage. For links to these and other to cash advance scam victims
full news stories, please visit www.greensheet.com/breakingnews.
php. The Federal Trade Commission is distributing $2.6 million
in refunds via PayPal to victims of a mobile cash advance
scam run by FloatMe. The company deceived consumers
with promises of "free money" but often failed to deliver
on these promises, typically advancing only $20 instead
of the advertised $50. The FTC found that FloatMe also
misled consumers about cancellation options and charged
additional hidden fees. Some consumers were deemed in-
eligible for the service due to undisclosed income thresh-
olds, despite paying subscription fees. The FTC charged
FloatMe with violating several laws, including the Restore
Report: U.S. has highest card acceptance cost Online Shoppers' Confidence Act. The 449,344 affected
consumers have 30 days to redeem their PayPal payments.
U.S. merchants face the highest card payment acceptance The agency's action against FloatMe underscores its com-
costs in industrialized nations, with businesses paying mitment to protecting consumers from deceptive practices
$224 billion in 2023, according to a CMSPI report. The re- and ensuring refunds reach those affected quickly and ef-
port, drawing on data from sources like Worldpay and the ficiently.
Federal Reserve, offers insight into the global payment
landscape, highlighting growing ecommerce, mobile pay- Justice Department accuses Visa
ments, and the high cost of accepting card payments. Most of monopolizing debit markets
of this, $143 billion, went toward interchange fees. Ecom-
merce growth significantly contributed to the rising fees, The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Visa, accusing the
with online sales expanding from 9 percent in 2019 to 15.4 company of illegally maintaining a monopoly over debit
percent in 2023. card network markets. The lawsuit alleges that Visa uses
anti-competitive agreements with merchants and banks
Globally, mobile devices facilitated 54 percent of ecom- to stifle competition, forcing debit transactions onto its
merce transactions in 2022. Meanwhile, payment prefer- network at higher costs. These practices, which include
ences vary across the world: cash still dominates in coun- imposing "disloyalty penalties" and preventing competi-
tries like Mexico and Indonesia, though it has dramatical- tors from entering the market, are seen as violations of
ly declined in India. In contrast, Europe shows significant the Sherman Antitrust Act. The DOJ claims Visa's dom-
differences in cash usage across countries, and the United inance in the debit market allows it to extract excessive
States remains highly reliant on credit cards, with 82 per- fees, which are passed on to consumers through higher
cent of adults possessing at least one. prices or reduced service quality. Attorney General Mer-
rick Garland emphasized that the DOJ's action is aimed
FPC offers resources for efficient at protecting competition and preventing Visa from abus-
secure, inclusive payments ing its market power. Visa has faced previous scrutiny, in-
cluding a 2020 lawsuit that halted its acquisition of fintech
The U.S. Faster Payments Council released new resources company Plaid.
to help financial institutions integrate faster payments.
Sponsored by Mastercard, two reports from the FPC's
Cross-Border Payments Work Group focus on ISO 20022, a
global financial messaging standard. The first report, How Also find us on Facebook,
to ISO 20022, provides detailed guidance on integrating LinkedIn & Twitter for the
the standard, while the second, Distinguishing Advantages most up-to-date stories,
in the Format & Structure of ISO 20022 for Instant Payment
Adoption, highlights the benefits of its richer data content can’t miss events and newest
and operational efficiency. industry announcements.

The FPC also released a guideline, Operational Consider-
ations for Receiving Instant Payments, developed by the Op-
erational Considerations Work Group, which addresses
challenges related to real-time payments, such as liquidity
management and fraud prevention. These initiatives un-
derline the FPC's commitment to fostering secure, inclu- https://www.facebook.com/TheGreenSheetInc
sive and efficient payments in the United States to help https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-green-sheet
FIs prepare for the future of real-time and cross-border https://twitter.com/The_Green_Sheet
transactions.

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